Twitter Removes Source from Some and Certifies Others

Twitter is still marching along on their aggressive campaign to take back control of their data stream. This week, they’ve removed the source notation that used to appear along with the date of a Tweet. This change appears to only be in effect when you view your stream online but it’s hard to say for sure.

Compare these two images of the same Tweet:

This is E! Online posting via HootSuite. The screencap comes from a Twitter piggy-back website that provides feeds of celebrity Tweets. The Tweet was posted today and clearly shows the HootSuite designation.

Here’s the same Tweet as viewed through the official Twitter web interface.

Here, there’s no sign of HootSuite or any “via” in the details section. Now, to be clear, these two posts also have different short links to the URL so it’s probably a case of one tool updating another, but I’m going with it.

Twitter told CNET that this change is just part of their normal housekeeping, an emphasis on the content and away from the details. But the opposite appears to be true. There’s a lot of stuff on that Tweet already, would the addition of one more word after the date make that big a difference?

It does seem that there’s a plan here but then I believe in conspiracies of all kinds.

In related news, Twitter handed out 12 “Certified Product” badges to companies who toed the line. Note that Hootsuite was one of them. . . so they giveth with one hand and taketh with the other. . . You can see the list of badge owners here.

I haven’t seen it happen yet, but it feels like Twitter is getting close to putting some third-party sites out of business. And while I understand their need to protect what’s theirs, I’m not sure that closing doors on folks who share the Tweeted word is good for business.

What do you think? Is Twitter right to take back their streams or should they share with anyone who wants to play?